Well then...

hello everyone.  To begin, here's another Tree of Life from the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I am in admiration of the borders:

Here is part 2 of my story border experiments:

 From the top...an elderly dog being pulled in a wagon: the fans we use in our new tai chi form:  the new lamp I bought for close work which has an icky plasticky smell that I'm hoping will go away:  the ants parading after the last rain:  myself with a giant doggy treat: a skipper (sort of a cross between a butterfly and a moth):  me feeling quite gloomy about an embroidery piece that has gone missing:  O.P., the central character of the piece:  another t-cell (representing an army of healthy healing cells) for a very ill friend:  a day of happy music when an old friend came to town.

Other signs of activity on the home front: a healthy bee brooch:

A very very small tree of life brooch (with rabbit):

This is the embroidery piece that went missing from a juried show in town.  There was an apology and reimbursement, and admittedly some gloom on my part.  I am working on letting go...things happen...but should you see it anywhere, please let me know, because it is not really supposed to be there!

In good news, Grace's beautiful Jellyfish Bride came here to stay!

And here is Gilly, wondering WHEN we are going to go on that walk I told her about:

So I'm hoping this new season will shower blessings on your beautiful tree of life...xoxo, s.

A story of Story

Hello everyone.  This may be long and rambling but I want to continue with thoughts from last post.
It started at the exhibit "Girl with the Pearl Earring" (Vermeer).  There were many portraits.  In asking myself which to study in particular, I looked at them from the question of which artist portrayed someone I would feel comfortable talking to.  Guess who won?  Rembrandt!  Sorry, no pictures, but his faces have so much Story in them...so much life and realness and mystery.  I had forgotten. Then we visited the gift shop and of all seemingly incongruous things, I fell in love with a book, Chintz, Indian Textiles for the West, by Rosemary Crill.  It just popped out at me, so I bought it.  Here is one of my favorite pictures from it:

So much activity, so much Story!  As I've become so aware of in Jude's work and online classes.  Because I'm doing alot of piecing work for my grandson's quilt, I have been neglecting day to day Story, and so in asking how I could bring that back into my work, I was looking at Penny's blog, and at her wonderful stitchings of story.  Then I noticed the borders around the Indian textiles:

and I thought, why not create my own sort of border to record daily events, such as:

This includes a friends' medical emergency, Gilly's toenail clipping adventure, a T-cell for a friend who desperately needs lots of them, 10 Chesapeake Retrievers jumping into the water at the dog park, some bees, an Oystercatcher bird, a snake we saw, and so on.  That was week one.  Inside the borders will be another sort of story (maybe)...perhaps trees and a lifetime of pets...a Memorial Day Landscape of sorts.

Here is the Plant Report: the persimmon tree is amazingly full of flowers.  Either I have never noticed them before, which is not impossible, or this year is so dry that it is a bit survival-anxious:

And lastly, this wreath of maple leaves fell, in almost exactly this configuration, into my backyard last week:

So, incomplete as it is, that's the story for now...xoxo, s.

A Hodge-Podge

Hello everyone.  Back from my big circle around the country on the train.  Every day I think of things I want to say to you and then all sorts of things happen and another day has gone by.  So here is a smattering of it all.

It was a good trip...all kinds of weather!  Flooding on the Mississippi.  A blizzard in North Dakota.  Here are some woods in Virginia, on the way home. There was a hollow and every once in a while a dogwood tree or a redbud tree.  We looked down into the hollow from the train...it went on for miles and miles...

I went East across the continent on the California Zephyr and then came home on the Cardinal through Virginia and West Virginia to Chicago.  Then I took the Empire Builder on the northern route through North Dakota, Montana, along the Columbia River to Portland and then down the coast. This shot is approaching Glacier National Park from the East. First the mountains were tiny on the horizon, then bigger and bigger, then we were among them:

My goal on this trip was to fill out the foot square blocks for Liam's quilt...it's taking forever, but I love the way it's coming along and pretty soon I will have 9 of them ready to sew together.  I had to order more blue linen from Glennis and also am going to include some from Deb.  I'm "celebrating the seams", following techniques from Jude, and while I'm trying to keep things more or less square, I'm not worrying about absolute Right Angles.  I think Amtrak would look nice redecorated with hand-sewn quilts:

These pictures are from my camera, but most of the photos I took on the trip were taken on the ipad; however, I have not yet figured out how to post them.  Anyway, I was glad eventually to come home. The marmalade bush said, "Welcome"!

While there is no new picture of Gilly to include, for the animal portion of this report I offer this: just after Grace put up a posting about Buckwheat,  Liam and I stumbled upon one of his relatives in the Princeton Museum:

He has really been around:

That's it for today...I'm hoping to get back to more stories in the sewing...I miss them, and so next time will delve into thoughts about that, and possibly have some examples to show.  Meanwhile, eat well, stay calm, breathe, and get enough sleep. 

Wildlife

Suddenly there are two donkeys living in my house.  They're almost entirely hand-sewn...Some kind of pattern is in the making, maybe. I think their names are Bertha and Rosario...they are here, voila!

A couple of weeks ago, Gilly had a visit from her friend Rocket, whom she met in agility class.  They look like cousins, and they might be, for they are both from the same Rescue.  Rocket is very smart (like Gilly).  When they play, it is a big Blur, so here they are as a sort of Still Life.

The other day, I saw something that looked like the center of a daisy on the leaves of my little maple tree.

I touched it, and it moved...it spread out til it was about 2 inches wide.  When I looked closely, it turned out to be many tiny yellow spiders.

Never would I have have touched it had I known what it was, and now that it has returned to its cozy family state I am quite inclined to leave it in peace, but what a surprise!

I'm about to start piecing my grand-son's quilt...this is a partial plan...each square will be 12" square:

Speaking of whom, here is a link to news of his dad's latest project.  My son is the guy who draws the pictures, and you'll be able to tell which one is my grandson if you watch the video!!

So on that note, I will say adieu for now...sending love, especially especially to those impacted by recent events...

Spring!

Hello everyone and happy spring!  Perhaps I'm learning to be a better wisteria pruner, as it looks like there will be many more flowers this year...

It's been very dry here so I'm working on ways to save water, remembered and hopefully improved on from our last drought.  For starters I'm saving the water that usually goes down the drain while the cold water turns to hot, and being judicious about watering the garden.

I took a vacation day at the beach, staying at Asilomar and visiting the Monterey Aquarium and especially the jellies!  Here are some very small ones that light up...

the beach:

my room...note the beautiful curtains...

I walked around Carmel, but didn't enjoy the commercialism.  The best part was this bird who visited bread baskets after the diners departed.  

He even visited my table and graciously offered me this view of his intricately overlapping feather situation whilst scanning the horizon for more profitable perches:

I've been constructing a table runner for my daughter-in-law, using methods learned from Jude...here is a view of it today, but there is a long way to go!  I'm embroidering state birds and flowers from 3 relevant states, but I just realized I only have been showing the boy birds because they are more "colorful".  This is embarrassing, being a girl bird myself and I will make more for us. Lately I was reprimanded for using the word 'girl' instead of 'woman' to refer to myself.  Hmmm, well...it's partly because the idea of being a cowgirl has always appealed.  You wouldn't say cowwoman, or cowoman...I can't even spell it so it looks right. My girlhood continues in my mind.  Anyway! here's a fuzzy picture of the table runner:

This is our state bird, the California Valley Quail (male version), that is becoming a brooch:

And lastly, Sleeping Beauty herself, resting on one of the beautiful pillows we found as recycle:

For each of you dear readers, I'm hoping that Spring is filling up your cup of wonder...xoxo, s.

Groundhog Day!

Hello everyone.  I love Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, because it's about shadows and hibernation and the coming of spring or the clinging of winter and it's not widely celebrated so you can do what you want with it!  This year I was hoping to do a little more but became engaged in a lengthy wrangling contest with my very quirky printer;  finally I managed to make a few cards and only two hibernation pillows...here is one:

And then I made a small brooch:

This is a belated report on the wondrous January full moon...the apple tree branches picked up the glow and seemed to be announcing something ...a dance at midnight perhaps...

Here is proof of progress on long term projects...a pile of squares for my grandson's quilt...soon I'll be able to start putting it together...

This is the pile of squares for a knitting project for a baby blanket to give away.  I was greatly inspired by Kaite.  I'm a very slow knitter with a LOT to learn but this is a good project when I need to have busy hands but not too much complication...

And here is my own little groundhog, Gilly, emerging from her burrow...a children's tunnel I bought at Ikea for her agility training class.  I also made her an item to jump over out of PVC pipe.  She loves learning and it keeps us both busy. 

That's all for now.  Enjoy your Groundhog Day!  If you're having a prolonged hibernation, enjoy that too.  xoxo, s.

On the twelfth day...

The last day of Christmas...Epiphany...finding the baby...taking down the decorations.  When I was growing up, the story was that if the decorations didn't come down by 12th night, the ghosts would walk. Hmmm...

Anyway here's the lamb that goes with the lion, but I can't show you the whole picture yet...it will be a surprise for later on.  Meanwhile I wish you happy discoveries, finding small things to admire...